


(Would've Been) Nice To Meet Ya

by reliablyimperfect



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Medical Inaccuracies, No Smut, Unconsciousness, terrible flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:27:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27533758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reliablyimperfect/pseuds/reliablyimperfect
Summary: When he joined the small group of people in the room, a tall, muscular man turned and, with eyes that flashed as if asking for a challenge, he hissed, "We were never here. For the sake of both of our countries, we were never here."
Relationships: Niall Horan/Liam Payne
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	(Would've Been) Nice To Meet Ya

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something I thought of. It's loosely based around an episode of Grey's Anatomy, so any overlap is (probably) intentional.  
> (Surprise, Reese! Another Niam!)

Sleep was heavy in Niall's eyes as he rounded the corner. It was nearly four am, and he still had several hours to go before his shift was over. He enjoyed the night shift, don't get him wrong, but he'd gone to bed a bit later than normal last night, and he was feeling the effects.

His patient, one of many on the ICU floor, was a young boy who had come in the day before complaining of stomach pains. Apparently, he had ingested several marbles and they had gotten lodged in his intestines. Nothing major, but they run the risk of causing an obstruction if they weren't able to pass on their own, so they had gone into surgery and had removed all the marbles.

Niall would never understand what made kids swallow things that weren't food. There was no way they could taste good, so what was the appeal? Niall rolled his eyes as he went through the motions of taking the kid’s vitals. It made him feel guilty every time he woke them up.

Just as he was finishing up his updates to the chart, his pager went off. The tinny beeping from his hip was enough to jolt him into awareness, and he took off down the hall to the Emergency Room. Then, a second page came in, and he was redirected to the private wing of the hospital. He had only ever had one other patient in the private wing, and that time it was the family member of a surgeon in the hospital.

He backtracked to the east side to scan his badge. When the double doors opened, he was hit with a wave of quiet. It was a bit eerie walking through the halls and hearing the soft squeak of his shoes on the floor. As he got closer to the room number, 6633, he heard voices. When he joined the small group of people in the room, a tall, muscular man turned and, with eyes that flashed as if asking for a challenge, he hissed, "We were never here. For the sake of _both_ of our countries, we were _never here_." Niall raised an eyebrow in confusion but turned to look at the surgeon who paged him.

"I was paged to an empty wing, Dr. Bryant?" Niall asked the neurosurgeon cheekily. He heard the soft exhalation of a chuckle from behind him, but he didn't look back at the man.

"This is Zayn Malik," Niall made a conscious effort to not react at the name of the man who was laying, unconscious, on the patient bed. _Holy shit. Zayn Malik is in my hospital!_ Niall thought in his head. On the outside, he kept his face calm, nodding after throwing a quick glance towards the bed. There was a thick, white bandage over his head. "He came in with a ruptured brain aneurism. At midnight, he had surgery, and needs to be monitored before he is released."

Niall nodded, and then Dr. Bryant, as well as his intern left the room, and it was just Niall and the 'man who wasn't here.'

"I apologize for biting your head off earlier," The man spoke softly. His eyes were on the bed, moving slowly over the man like they were taking in every detail.

"I understand. You're just looking out for your..." Niall trailed off, and when he felt another set of eyes on him, he gestured at the bed.

"He's my boss, but he's also one of my best friends."

"All the more reason to bite the head off a stranger." Niall chirped. While he was here, he figured he could glance at his chart. Taking note of a few variations in ICP levels, which was normal after brain surgery, he documented the time and most recent number that was on the monitor just in case he wasn't the next person to check in on the man.

When he glanced up at the man again, he was already looking at Niall. The blonde felt his face heat up under the scrutiny, and he hoped that this guy didn't have any medical training.

"You're a good nurse."

"You've known me for four seconds. How could you possibly know that?"

"Niall Horan, aged 28. Went to school at Trinity College in Dublin. You maintained very high grades and had seven letters of recommendation for your current position here, at Bon Secours Hospital. As far as internet activity, you don't really get on much, but you watch a lot of romantic movies on Netflix, and you live alone." The man rattled off a shocking amount of information that Niall was unaware was public knowledge. Or, maybe, it _wasn't_ public knowledge. "Background information is part of my job. When we realised we would be coming to a hospital in Dublin, I did research on hospital personnel. Dr. Bryant was the best neurosurgeon, so we came here."

Niall wasn't sure why he was waiting around, but he felt like he couldn't leave. Finally glancing up again, he breathed a silent sigh of relief when he noticed there were no eyes on him anymore. Using the moment, Niall allowed himself to do his own study of the man he'd been speaking with. From where he was standing, Niall took in the short hair and the strong jaw. Despite the layers he was wearing, the muscles underneath his clothes were obvious. His back was straight, and his hands were folded together in his lap. He couldn't stop the way his eyes traced over the curve of his lips or lingered a bit when his mind supplied a few other things those hands could be wrapped around.

He blushed at the train of thought he was having and cleared his throat. It ended up backfiring when the man's eyes swung around to land on him. His eyebrows slowly rose when Niall didn't say anything.

"All good?"

"No, I mean, yes, of course!" Niall stammered. "I was just about to say that I need to go and check on a few of my other patients. I will be back Mr. um..."

"No Mr." The man finally smiled, and Niall felt his heart melt. This big, buff bodyguard had the sweetest smile he'd ever seen. "Just Liam."

"Okay, Just Liam," Niall grinned back. It was hopeless to fight against the grin, so he let it out in full force, feeling it stretch his cheeks even more.

"Cheeky," Liam winked.

"I'll see you later, Liam." He backed towards the door with a wave and went to check on his other patients.

The exhaustion finally hit him again at seven am. He had been running around the hospital getting labs for Mr. Malik and several of his other patients. Around five thirty, he had gone to check Mr. Malik's vitals again, but Liam had been dozing, and he looked so sweet; Niall didn't wake him.

He was yawning when he walked into the room, and he covered his mouth when he noticed Liam alert and facing the door. Liam sat up and smiled at Niall when he noticed him.

"Hi." Liam greeted.

"Hi, Liam. How is Mr. Malik doing?" He spoke as he reached for the chart hanging at the end of the bed.

"I told you before, you _can_ call him Zayn. It sounds so weird to hear someone call him Mr. Malik. That's his father."

"It feels weird to call a patient by their first name." Niall blushed.

"Well, we were never here, so I guess I can tell you a story about my friend, _Zayn_ , and then you can ask about my friend Zayn." Niall chuckled, but nodded, so Liam told him a story.

Liam told Niall a story where they went out for Liam's birthday and had a bit too much to drink. They got locked out of Liam's apartment, but then realised they had been using Liam's key on _Zayn's_ front door because it was a habit for them to go to Zayn's house.

The story had Liam in stitches, remembering the memory, and Niall laughed along simply because Liam's eyes scrunched up when he laughed, and it was adorable.

"So, Liam," Niall began. "Have you spoken to your friend Zayn today?" Liam looked at him quizzically, glancing between the bed and the blonde before his question clicked.

"No, the lazy bastard has been sleeping all day." _That_ made Niall laugh. He barked out a laugh in surprise and clapped a hand over his mouth. The poor man just had brain surgery; he had a pretty good excuse.

“Well, I’ll check back in later. That gives him a bit to wake up.” After a brief hesitation, he winked and spun to walk out before he could overthink it.

He speed-walked straight to the nurses’ station and fumbled with some charts to make himself look busy. Olivia, another night-shift nurse, saw right through it and raised an eyebrow at him.

“Really hot family member,” Niall muttered under his breath. “I think he’s flirting back.” Before he could make a face that said _control the sounds you make_ , Olivia squealed and bounced on her toes a bit in excitement.

“I _have_ to tell Lou!” She whisper-shouted.

“ _No_!” Niall said firmly. It stopped the shorter girl in her tracks. “You know nothing can happen.” He reminded her in a kinder voice. She nodded, and they both went back to actually working.

“The surgery went great. We’re just waiting for him to wake up so we can do a post-op eval on him, and then they’re flying back to London.” Niall perked up at the mention of London, because he knew they were talking about Liam and Zayn.

“Mr. Payne said it was of the utmost importance that he be released as soon as possible. The fewer people who know he was hospitalised, the better.”

“He said the same thing to me!”

“Who’s Mr. Payne?” Niall couldn’t help but ask, dropping the illusion that he _wasn’t_ eavesdropping.

“Mr. Malik’s bodyguard. He’s intense.”

“You mean Liam?” Niall asked, confused.

“No,” The doctor’s voice was insistent. “He told us to call him Mr. Payne.” He shrugged and turned back to his friends. Niall tuned out the words spoken after that and thought about what that meant. Liam not only told Niall to call him by his first name but had specifically told other people _not_ to.

***

He grinned when he swung around the door to Zayn’s room, freezing when the reality became apparent. The smile slipped from his face, and his shoulders slumped.

The room was empty.

It was freshly cleaned, which meant that Zayn must’ve checked out _at least_ an hour ago. He sighed, turning to leave, and bumped into a firm object. His eyebrows furrowed, thinking _I wasn’t near the wall_. Then, he backed up a step and focused.

“L-Liam,” Niall stuttered out in shock. “What, uh, what are you doing here?”

“Wanted to say thanks,” Liam smiled softly. “And bye.”

“Your friend finally woke up?” Niall asked. He was too nervous to ask the question he really wanted to ask which was: ‘You’re leaving?’

“He did. Neuro exam came back okay, and he’s probably on a plane back to London right now.”

“Oh,” Niall said lamely.

“Niall?” Liam asked. The blonde couldn’t help the shiver that ran down his spine when he watched Liam’s mouth form the shape of his name. He glanced up at Liam in lieu of a reply, but that seemed to be enough. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Niall shook himself out of it. “Um, I just thought that –” He bit his tongue before he said something embarrassing. Liam thrust his hand out between them. Out of shock, Niall’s eyes darted down to the hand and back up to Liam’s face.

A bit unsure, Niall slowly eased his hand into Liam’s. The warmth of his palm against Niall’s cool one was soothing. Beneath the firm grip of his hand, Niall could feel the callouses, and he nearly whined when the grip tightened just a bit before letting go.

“It was nice to meet you, Niall.” Liam said in barely a whisper.

“I’d say it was nice to meet you,” Niall responded. “But you were never here.” Liam cracked a grin at the joke, and then it was _his_ turn to back out of the room. When he vanished from sight, Niall let out a small exhale.

Life continued to happen as if Liam had never walked into the hospital. It was honestly like he really _hadn’t_. The entire world went back to normal, and Niall seemed stuck in the past. It wasn’t like he could talk to any of his friends about it because _Liam was never here_. Even the people in the hospital that were aware of their secret visitors never talked about it, so Niall was left wandering the halls in a daydream.

There were moments when he was paged that he imagined it was Liam on the other end, back with a superficial injury that Niall could treat alone. It never was, though, because Liam wasn’t coming back. Maybe Liam had been a figment of his imagination.

Liam was never here.

Until he was.

Niall was just getting off a nearly-twenty-hour shift and was on his way to the locker room to _finally_ change out of his scrubs. He thought that the man who stepped out in front of him was simply a distraught family member who was unaware of his surroundings. Without hesitating, Niall tried to move around him, but a hand reached out and grabbed his forearm lightly.

“Niall.” That voice froze him in his tracks. Like the world was in slow motion, he raked his eyes up, taking in­­ the casual brown boots, jean-clad legs, and smart, but casual sweater. Niall’s breath hitched when he focused on his face. Liam was just as beautiful as he was, _god it must’ve been at least three weeks ago now_.

“Liam,” He breathed. The dopey grin that spread across his face was out of his control, and when Liam mirrored it, he thought that his would never fade. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “You’re here? Where’s Zayn?”

“Zayn is at home. He’s recovering well and is getting check-ups at his regular doctor.” Liam reported. From the way that he spoke, Niall could easily recognise the automaticity, and the rigidity, in the relay.

“What are you doing here?” He asked softly. Liam glanced around frantically, easing when he laid eyes on his jacket. From beneath, he produced a small, simple bouquet of flowers that Niall couldn’t identify. He thrust them towards Niall with blush high on his cheeks.

“You,” Liam practically forced out.

“What?”

“Sorry,” Liam chuckled awkwardly. “I, uh, was wondering if you were busy tomorrow?”

“I have a shift, but I’m off at ten,” Niall said.

“Would you like to do something? You know, together?” With a chuckle, Niall smiled despite the firm hold his teeth had on his lower lip.

“Are you trying to ask me on a date, Liam?” Niall teased.

“Oh, god, yeah. I’m _trying_.”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Yes.” Niall rocked forward onto his toes and grinned. “I’d love to go out with you.”

“I’ll pick you up?” Niall nodded. “Here?” Another nod, and then one more when Liam specified a time. With a simple wave, Niall sauntered down the hall towards the locker room. When he exited, sans scrubs, he glanced around to take in the Liam-less lobby and headed towards his car.

The next day, (night, technically) he floated through his shift like he was in a dream. Thankfully, there were no emergent cases put onto his service that day, so he was able to go through the motions of working: running labs and taking vitals. An hour before his shift ended, he essentially shut down. Olivia took over his cases, and she squealed (again) when he told her the reason. By the time the end of his shift came around, he was practically vibrating with excitement.

Finally, (blessedly) his shift ended, and he raced to change his clothes. In between pulling off his scrub top and buttoning the blue, skinny-jeans he had picked out for the ‘casual-but-nice’ date Liam had planned, Niall had a mini-breakdown about how he would act on this ‘date.’ By the time he walked out of the locker room and was confronted with Liam, he was practically _sweating_ , shaking with nerves he didn’t know he’d have.

“Hi,” Niall said, awkwardly breaking the silence. Liam had been staring at him, mouth open, until he spoke. Only then had Liam’s eyes focused on Niall.

“Hi.” He felt the rush of blood through his body when Liam raked his eyes up and down his body.

“Damn,” Liam breathed. To Niall, it seemed like he didn’t mean for Niall to hear it, but he _did_ , so the blonde questioned it.

“What?”

“Your, um, you look good.” Liam said. When Niall quirked an eyebrow as if to say _don’t I always?_ Liam continued, “The scrubs aren’t really flattering.”

It took a moment for Liam’s words to register in his ears, but then he was backtracking immediately, with blush high on his cheeks.

“No,” Liam said, “I mean like, you look so nice now. I’ve never seen you in normal clothes. The scrubs don’t do you justice.” Unsure of how to respond to that, Niall motioned towards the automatic doors with his head, like that would give him all the answers. Instead, the separation of the doors before him gave the firm reminder of reality. He faltered when Liam caught his eyes. As if he could hear the compliment in his head, Liam stepped forward with one of his own.

“You look dashing,” Liam grinned. He took Niall’s hand and tugged the blonde towards the double doors, out into the cool air and into their first (of many) successful dates.


End file.
